Pixels are the most technology-filled dice we have ever noticed: They illuminate using RGB LEDs and may send electronic roster results wirelessly through Bluetooth, all supposedly without undermining the shape, weight, or endurance you could anticipate from ordinary tabletop gaming dice. Most digital Wars jobs haven’t been very impressive: They are comically oversized, require cables, are poorly balanced, or come in one immutable colour. We haven’t supported it yet, but the Pixels job promises to tackle all those issues.
People like the idea: The Kickstarter effort to fund the initial manufacturing run has amassed nearly a thousand dollars with 29 days to go.
By packaging away all the electronics–charging coils, LEDs, Bluetooth–inside cast resin, the dice are a standard form factor and just slightly heavier than other resin or plastic dice while still being much lighter than stone or metal dice. They charge and are programmed in a unique case. They’re… actually waterproof. They are even balanced, we’re told, together with the Kickstarter going to greath lengths–at a timeworn bit of dice showmanship–to show you that they’re just as balanced as the competition.
I believe the most attractive part of Pixel dice is the promise of easy digital integration. The dice know what they’ve landed on, so that you may have the experience of rolling inside a virtual tabletop. For some, not rolling real dice makes playing tabletop RPGs like D&D over the internet less fun. This may be one alternative.
The dice were designed by Jean Simonet, an electrical engineer by training who had been work for Bethesda programming systems in games like Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Oblivion, and Skyrim. That does look to be an perfect set of abilities to bring to this project.
As we mentioned when we first saw these dice this past year, the quest to put RGB light in everything persists.
